A rather confusing email was sent by Flickr this morning to its users:

We think you are going to love Flickr under SmugMug ownership, but you can choose to not have your Flickr account and data transferred to SmugMug until May 25, 2018. If you want to keep your Flickr account and data from being transferred, you must go to your Flickr account to download the photos and videos you want to keep, then delete your account from your Account Settings by May 25, 2018.

If you do not delete your account by May 25, 2018, your Flickr account and data will transfer to SmugMug and will be governed by SmugMug’s Terms and Privacy Policy. Flickr email, 23 April 2018

Don MacAskill, founder and owner of SmugMug, clarified what this really meant on Twitter this morning:

Sorry if this wasn’t crystal clear in the email, but if you stay with @Flickr, you’re simply agreeing to transfer your data to @SmugMug [the company], not @SmugMug [the product]. (And our data policies are great!) Keeping Flickr on its own so it can grow and thrive! Not migrating @DonMacAskill, 23 April 2018

Flickr itself announced that one of its first priorities will be to remove itself from the Yahoo/Oath login infrastructure, which will enable Flickr users to log-in with whichever email address they like:

As we transition from Yahoo/Oath infrastructure, one of our first priorities will be authentication/login. When that system is built, will be able to use whatever email you prefer to log into Flickr. @Flickr, 23 April 2018

What exactly this means for Flickr users is unclear, but Flickr have announced that free accounts will remain:

We’ve seen a lot of questions about free Flickr accounts since our SmugMug announcement. When Flickr joins SmugMug on May 25th, we will continue to offer free Flickr accounts. @Flickr, 23 April 2018